Experiments on turbulence and settling down of fine sediments induced by pumped storage operations in a cuboidal reservoir

Giovanni De Cesare, Michael Müller
2011
Conference paper

Long-term sedimentation of pumped storage reservoirs due to the alternation of turbine and pumping modes is an issue regarding sustainability and reliability of such schemes. Systematic experiments on a cuboidal basin are conducted to study how flow fields, turbulence and settling down of fine sediments are affected by discharge, duration of pumped storage sequences, sediment concentration and intake/outlet location. The experimental setup allows simulating inflowing jet into a reservoir, as well as water extraction from the storage volume. Prior to physical scaled modelling, several scenarios with and without sediments were simulated in a numerical model. The model performance was optimized analysing simulation parameters and several turbulence models. Simulation results were compared to jet theory and observations in preliminary tests on the hydraulic model, which allowed adapting and optimizing both numerical and experimental setup.

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Giovanni De Cesare, Michael Müller
2011
Conference paper

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/168556?ln=en

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Related concepts (3)

Reservoir

A reservoir (ˈrɛzərvwɑːr; from French réservoir ʁezɛʁvwaʁ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, usually built to store fresh water, or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an embayment within it, excavating, or building any number of retaining walls or levees.

Experiment

An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Experiments vary greatly in goal and scale but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exist natural experimental studies.

Sediment

Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand and silt can be carried in suspension in river water and on reaching the sea bed deposited by sedimentation; if buried, they may eventually become sandstone and siltstone (sedimentary rocks) through lithification.